In new book, Jodi Arias' prosecutor details strategy used to put her behind bars for life

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Prosecutor Juan Martinez looks into the cell block in Perryville Prison where Jodi Arias lives; a place she will never leave until the end of her life.

"We can look over the fence and perhaps wonder what she's thinking or what she's doing, but one thing I always keep in mind is she is there because of something she did, not because of something that I did," he said.

Many observers think Martinez and his aggressive prosecution style have a lot to do with Arias' fate.

In his new book released on Tuesday, Martinez details how he went after Arias for the murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander and reveals his personal thoughts about the killer.

Martinez writes, "Arias always struck me as the 'bad waitress' type. She would probably be looking down at customers, smiling at them with a fake happy look and giving them bad service."

"In a bad waitress-type, they bring the food cold, but it isn't their fault, but the coffee isn't right, but she didn't make it," he said. "That's sort of how I saw her."

Shortly after Travis Alexander's body was found, Martinez walked through the crime scene with Travis still slumped over in his shower, shot and stabbed dozens of times, with much of the room splattered with blood.

"The only impression I was left with was this is overkill and whoever did this went to great lengths to make sure Travis Alexander did not survive that day," he said.

Martinez says the thoughts of that violent crime drove him in his prosecution. Much of his book focuses on his cross examination of Jodi Arias on the stand.

"That's what she says, I scrambled her brain, but I'm not sure that that wasn't a tactic on her part to put me off or garner sympathy from the jury," he said. "I'm not sure that I scrambled anything."

Martinez says his aggressive questioning was a strategy meant to keep Arias off balance and make it tough for her to keep her story straight.

"If I had let her continue on without being firm with her, she would have controlled the situation," he said. "She would have had me like a dog on a leash, sniffing for morsels throughout the courtroom."

I reached out to Jodi Arias for a comment on this story, but she declined my request. Those who are in contact with her have told me she is not happy that Martinez, and her own attorney Kirk Nurmi, have both written books on her case while it is still in the appeals process.

Former Arias attorney Jennifer Wilmott gave me this statement on Juan Martinez:

"I am concerned that prosecutors are allowed to personally profit from their own cases. It makes you question the fairness and motives a prosecutor has when his own personal financial profit is at stake. Maricopa County has specific rules to prevent this from happening."

Martinez says he go the OK from his boss, county attorney Bill Montgomery, to write his book.

"I have followed all of the rules before I entered into the contract to write this book," he said.

Looking back, the only real failure Martinez had in the case was the inability to get a death sentence for Arias.

I asked him if that's something he thinks about.

"I do the best job that I can with what I have," he said. "I did the best that I could and now I've walked away from it."

Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars